The present invention relates to a folding portable terminal, in particular to a folding portable terminal which operates responsive to contents of incoming, when the folding portable terminal is transferred from a folded condition into an opened condition at the time of incoming or thereafter.
Conventionally, portable terminals, such as a folding portable telephone, and the like have come into wide use. Such a folding portable terminal generally waits for incoming at a folded condition thereof and is used at an opened condition thereof. Hereunder, description is made about a portable telephone capable of being folded into two parts as illustrated in FIG. 2 as an example of a conventional portable terminal. When the portable telephone is at “folded condition” illustrated in FIG. 2(A), an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) portion 4 and a ten key portion 5 cannot be used. Namely, an user of the portable telephone cannot see the LCD portion 4 at the time of folding, since the LCD portion 4 is located on a plane of an upper housing 21 that will be kept in contact with a lower housing 20 at the time of folding. Similarly, the user of the portable telephone cannot use the ten key portion 5 at the time of folding, since the ten key portion 5 is located on a plane of the lower housing 20 that will be kept in contact with the upper housing 21 at the time of folding. Accordingly, in order to use a talking function or a mail function of the portable telephone illustrated in FIG. 2, it is necessary for the user to transfer the portable telephone from the “folded condition” illustrated in FIG. 2(A) into the “opened condition” illustrated in FIG. 2(B). In other words, it is necessary to open the lower housing 20 and the upper housing 21 by using a hinge portion 22 as a center and to expose the ten key portion 5, the LCD portion 4, or the like, that is, an user interface for using the talking function or the mail function, to the outside.
Next, referring to FIG. 6, description is made in detail as regards an example of actions by an user using such a conventional portable terminal, a method of operating the conventional portable terminal, and the like. In FIG. 6, illustrated is a flow chart for explaining actions and operations carried out by the user until the user reads a received mail, in a case that the conventional portable telephone receives the mail at the folded condition. Besides, the portable telephone has a structure in which the upper housing 21 and the lower housing 20 are connected by the hinge portion 22, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Further, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the portable telephone comprises a radio portion 1, a control portion 2, a voice signal processing portion 3, the LCD portion 4, the ten key portion 5, a receiver/microphone portion 6, an ROM (Read Only Memory) portion 7, an RAM (Random Access Memory) portion 8, and an open and close detecting portion 9. In addition, the portable telephone is being supplied with electric power and waiting for incoming at the folded condition thereof (at an waiting condition).
At first, the control portion 2 monitors whether or not the portable telephone 11 is not only at the folded condition but also at the waiting condition (step S11). Namely, if the portable telephone 11 is folded to be waiting for incoming, nothing is required to be displayed, for example, in the LCD portion 4. Power supply for the LCD portion 4 can therefore be off. In other words, it is enough to monitor whether or not the portable telephone 11 is transferred into the opened condition and incoming from a network is received. It is thereby not necessary to conduct the other controls, and the like. As a result, a holding electric power can be reduced extremely.
When a notice of incoming of a packet addressed to the portable telephone 11 is received from the network during the waiting time, the control portion 2 makes the radio portion 1 conduct a reception processing of the body of a received mail (step S12). After receiving the body of the received mail, the control portion 2 informs the user of the reception of the mail by making the receiver/microphone portion 6 ring an incoming indicator tone (step S13).
When the user has confirmed the incoming indicator tone, the user generally reads the above mail. Accordingly, the control portion 2 informs the user of the reception of the mail, as mentioned above, so that the portable telephone 11 is transferred into the opened condition (opening condition) by the user (step S14). Besides, the control portion 2 may make the LCD portion 4 display a message “A mail has arrived” (mail receiving message), after the portable telephone 11 has been transferred into the opening condition (step S15). Thereafter, indication for displaying the body of the mail in the LCD portion 4 is input by the user through the ten key portion 5 (step S16). The body of the received mail is thereby displayed in the LCD portion 4.
However, in the conventional portable terminal mentioned above, the user cannot make the portable terminal conduct an operation responsive to contents of incoming until the user has completed both an action for opening the portable terminal and an action for inputting a predetermined indication to the portable terminal by using the user interface, such as the ten key portion 5, and the like. Accordingly, many processes and much time ate inevitably required for the user while the user comes to know the fact of the incoming and then reads the received mail.
Especially, the problem becomes serious, in a case that a voice call is received by the conventional portable terminal. A person who calling up the user generally rings off his telephone used by himself, so far as his telephone is not turned into a talking condition within a certain time after he has sent a notice of incoming from his telephone to the portable telephone 11. In other words, when the user fails to put the portable telephone 11 into the talking condition (when the user fails to answer the portable telephone 11) within a certain time after the portable telephone 11 has started ringing, the person who calling up the user makes his telephone stop the sending of notice of incoming (the person who calling up the user hangs up the receiver). Therefore, it is necessary for the user to conduct talking operations by using the ten key portion 5, and the like to transfer the portable telephone 11 into the talking condition with the above person within a limited time after the notice of incoming of the voice call has been received.